driving game

Criterion Games threw fans a curve ball with the unveiling of Burnout Crash. Instead of photorealistic graphics and accurate physics, this downloadable edition of the series is more cartoonish, built more for the casual fans. It’s a different take on the franchise that somehow manages to keep that Burnout feel.

But that was the single-player campaign. Given the casual nature of the release (It’s easy to pick up and play.), Burnout Crash lends itself to multiplayer and I had a chance to check out several aspects of it last week.

I’m just going to come out and say this right now. Gran Turismo 5 is the best game I’ve ever played with 3D glasses on. How good was it? I actually felt I was driving the Tuscan dirt roads at dusk. All I needed was virtual wind blowing through my hair and the smell of earth and I would be there.

I’ve seen other games in 3D glasses before. Killzone 3 was good. Crysis 2 was so beautiful it made my eyes bleed. But in terms of realism, nothing could touch this combination of racing sled, racing wheel, Bravia TV, glasses and head tracking. Yes, I said head tracking. At E3, this setup had a PlayStation Eye camera trained on me and it worked so well that when I turned my head, the perspective would shift left or right. I could now use my mirrors in this cockpit view.

Of course, zipping around the countryside like this was still difficult. I kept slipping in the dirt, but after adjusted to it, the game felt so immersive that I could have sworn I was there. All of this brings me up to the larger point which is price.

To duplicate this setup at home would probably cost less than the Subaru Impreza I was driving. I figure that it was at least $20,000. A racing cockpit would cost $3,999. The Bravia 3D TV would cost $4,999. The 3D glasses were $149. The Gran Turismo 5 Logitech Wheel is $149.99. A PlayStation 3 is $299. A PlayStation Eye is $39. The game itself is $59. That all adds up to $9,693 plus a couple of hundred dollars for taxes and fees. I guess if you really wanted a convincing argument for that rig, you could tell your wife/significant other that it would be the closest thing to driving a sports car without actually buying one. Unfortunately, I don’t think you can get a loan for that.

Driver San Francisco will be one of the more unusual driving games released in 2011. It’s not designed to be realistic. If you want that, you’d be more inclined to play Gran Turismo 5 this November. It’s not all about destruction or kart racing. If you’d rather play those games, then you’d be playingSplit/Second or ModNation Racers right now.

Driver San Francisco is none of those things. First off, it’s more fantasy-based. Yes, you still drive in the City by the Bay. You still do missions. But the biggest change is an ability called Shift. It lets players take control of any car within a certain vicinity and instantly drive it. You don’t have to move your hero and hijack a car or do some fantastic feat of daring-do and jump from sedan to big-rig. All you have to do is switch to a wider view. move your cursor and pick the next car. It’s that easy.

How is this possible within the realm of a driving game? Well, Driver San Francisco takes place in the comatose mind of John Tanner. The hardened detective got into a major accident and lies in a deep slumber. During this time, he’s going through the San Francisco built in his head, chasing after the crime lord Charles Jericho. It’s a good way to intertwine gameplay and story. To tell you the truth, the whole setup reminds me of something out of Life on Mars or Ashes to Ashes.